I too consider myself christian. but i know that the "Bible" as it exists today is NOT necessarily what was written long ago, NOR is it necessarily exactly gods words. man has "interpreted" those words through his life experience filters, memory errors etc. add in mis-translations, both intentional and accidental, and you have a loosely accurate, at best, set of beliefs. Knowing this, i still try to learn from the lessons presented. a lot of the "hard right, fundamentalists" like the person you encountered "cherry pick" what they want to believe, or have been fed a "slanted" interpretation. pretty clear in Hebrew 8:13 that the "old covenant" IE the old testament, the book with all the bad things against gays, etc, was made defunct by the coming of jesus. one way i try to put it to people is this. God created man, man was given free will, and was NOT meant to be perfect, those were called angels, a status we all strive to achieve, right? well in Gods unfortunate "gift" of free will, we started doing things he didnt like, he tried "tough love" but it didnt work, short term yes, but not long term, so eventually he tried a different approach, sending JC and becoming a loving caring god vs the wrathful one. while it was abused by many power hungry and greedy people, more people followed the core teachings of JC, so it worked, but was twisted by those who could for their own means unfortunately.

Those who pick and chose scriptures to fit what they THINK is right, are like rules lawyers, trying to make someone out as a cheater for something not totally covered specifically, but twisting things to fit THEIR way of wanting it to be judged.

On the religion in politics and morals. no you do NOT need to be religious to be moral. for some it is a guide for those with weak convictions, etc. that is all. most of our founding fathers were religious in one way or another, but they ALL said that the nation will NOT support or foster any religion over another. it does NOT say that when entering government service you have to leave those convictions at the door, it also doesnt say you can force your beliefs on others, or have others forced on YOU. if that was so, why does almost every government building made before the 50-60's have biblical references on them? granted no quotes of Judaism or Islamic faith, because they are so few in numbers in early years at least i would guess, hard to get real numbers as they didnt have great record keeping back then on such things, also it was not thought to be important to track, they were inclusive, not exclusive. you have to really look at the time, word meanings and USAGE at the time, etc.

now having said all that, here is something to have in mind or in hand next time. there are some linguists that have been studying the dead sea scrolls "originals" of what is in the bible. words are showing up that are NOT what we see today. such as the word that has become translated as homosexuals. these linguists have found the original word used is MORE similar (it was a rarely used word, so the mistranslation in case could be purely accidental) to the word that today is equivalent to PEDOPHILE, an adult man who FORCES himself on a young boy or slave NOT two consenting adults.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/homarsen.htm

i also avoid churchs, as the teachings back when i was molested made me think what happened was my fault, bad, etc, and was part of my reason for repressing those memories, and my trans, for over 35 years. i have NEVER found a church i didnt feel wrong in, etc. so i have done a lot of research on my own, etc.

of course your mileage might vary, your beliefs might be different, etc all that is ok. i get along with lots of people who believe differently, its when they have a problem because i fail to "see the right and properness" of their point of view that problems come up.

Teresa L.